by Trixie More
“Out with it, who you seeing?” Marley smirked, realizing Allison’s discomfort. “Someone handsome?”
“The Mastrelos, OK?” She smirked back. “They asked me to join them for dinner tonight.”
“Uh huh. We’ll see when you get back,” Marley said. “You are coming back before you go, right?”
Derrick was coming in forty-five minutes to pick her up. There was no way out of this.
“Derrick. All right. He’s the one who asked me to join them for dinner, and I just don’t want to smell like onions.”
Marley gaped at her. “Derrick? You’re hooking up with Derrick?”
“It’s not a hookup!” Allison considered. Marley was friendly with the Mastrelos and seemed to know Derrick pretty well. If this was a hookup and Marley were to repeat this conversation … oh, for pities sake. Allison was done worrying. The guy could take her or leave her. She was not twisting herself into a knot over this guy, construction god or not.
“Derrick asked you to have dinner with him and his family?”
“Yeah, he did. And he’ll be here at six forty-five to pick me up, and I want to look nice, OK? You happy?”
“And you don’t think he wants to hook up?” Marley said, yanking an apron on. “You think that’s a good idea?”
“What do you mean?” Allison knew why she didn’t think it was all that good of an idea but that didn’t mean she thought Marley should agree.
“I dunno. You don’t seem like a good match is all.”
“Why?” Now Allie was a little annoyed. She would decide who she was a match for, not Marley.
“I don’t think he can handle you, is all. You’re too …” Suddenly Marley stopped as if she realized she’d run her skates out too far and the ice under her might give way. “Just, he’s not the type to stand up to people much, and you’re … tough, I guess.”
That stopped Allie. She couldn’t deny it, she liked to be seen as authoritative. She worked hard to make sure everyone she met knew she was in charge. She wasn’t going to count on anyone or anything. Not anymore. Not for a long time. What was more interesting was that Marley seemed to think Derrick wasn’t her equal in sheer force of will. Allie hadn’t ever thought of it. She just assumed because he was built, tall and utterly gorgeous, he could do or say whatever he wanted. And if a man had all that going for him, why wouldn’t he be in control and a match for anything?
“Maybe all we need is for me to handle him,” Allie snapped.
“See? That there’s what I mean. You better think about this Ms. Walton. Derrick is the apple of his grandfather’s eye. And if you break his heart, you won’t be in this building long,” Marley warned.
Allison rolled her eyes. “Business doesn’t work that way.”
“You think Mastrelo’s is a business? Derrick might not be able to handle you, but you ain’t gonna handle Angelo.” Marley turned her back and went about checking the orders. “Go and get yourself all pretty. Just watch where you put your business.”
“I’ll put my business any damn place I want. You might want to keep your thoughts to yourself,” Allie shot back. She left the kitchen before Marley could get another word in but she still heard the refrigerator door slam, so Marley got the last bitch in any way. Allison had to content herself with running home to shower, and putting herself through a heart-pounding race to get primped and back to the shop.
She wound up wearing jeans and the angora sweater. She was more comfortable, and she didn’t have to feel so vulnerable, so obviously wanting to please him. A little makeup and enormous hoop earrings were her concessions to the evening. She left her hair loose, taming the curls into shiny, smooth twists with some oil. Her one fancy bra was convertible, and she suffered the tight strap to wear the sweater off her shoulders. She tossed on her leather jacket and got back to the shop by six forty. Marley came out of the kitchen and gave her the once over while Allison stood there with her arms folded across her chest.
“Pretty sweater,” was all she said.
Allison dropped her arms. “Marley, do you and Derrick have something? Is this going to be a big issue? ’Cause this really isn’t a date.”
“No! I just like him, and I meant what I said. If you date him and it doesn’t go well, things could get messy. I like you both but …” Marley flung her hand out. “You’re just so bossy! And he’s too nice. I couldn’t even date him.” Marley grinned. “I’m mean, like you!” She snarled at Allison playfully. “You know, women like us, we need a man with machismo!”
Marley’s dark eyes widened as she looked over Allison’s shoulder. “Too late, muchacha. You tell me that man isn’t thinking hookup, and I’ll smack you silly.”
Allison turned around and her breath caught in her chest. He was outside the door, pushing it open, the little bells tinkling. Her brain with its endless thinking was just … empty. Derrick had on a black, athletic-cut button-down shirt, the cuffs rolled up, the neck open. It was tucked into dark blue jeans that clung to him. A bouquet of daisies and roses swung carelessly at his side, a small bakery box in the other hand, as he shouldered open the door. Then he was there, tall, dark and heart-stopping. His velvet coffee eyes were already on her, roving over her shoulders and then meeting her stare. When the brilliant smile broke across his face, her heart lurched back into gear. Behind her, she heard Marley suck in a breath.
“Girl, you are in trouble.”
One look at Allison told Derrick everything he wanted to know. He pushed through the doors into the shop. The woman waiting for him was Allison herself, and this woman, who never gave an inch, had dressed for him. Despite her insistence that she had no time, she’d transformed herself into the woman he’d caught glimpses of soft, beautiful and vulnerable. Other people might mistake her appearance as something Allison layered over herself, adding makeup, jewelry, and a pretty sweater but he knew otherwise. The woman before him was a revelation, not a creation, and the fact she existed inside the resilient, formidable woman he admired … was stunning.
Marley disappeared into the kitchen, and Allison surprised him by blushing.
“Hi,” she said quietly.
Derrick leaned in close, brushing a soft kiss across her lips. Allison responded by reaching up and looping her arms around his neck, stretching up and pressing into him. True to herself, if they were going to kiss, Allison was going to bring it. She used her tongue to tease at his mouth, running the wet warmth of it lightly over his lips. She tasted of mint. Prolonging the game was heady; he let himself open the smallest amount and felt his mouth curve in a grin. Her answering moan was a cross between a purr and a groan, and it went right to his crotch. He wrapped the arm holding the flowers around her waist, his forearm pressing into her low back and tugged her into him, loving the heat of her against him. In his arms, she redoubled her efforts to get him to open his mouth and let her in. She was practically climbing his leg in her attempt to arouse him.
This was the best way to start a date, but the worst way to get ready to meet his family. He closed his mouth and pressed into hers, leaning back to break the kiss. Her eyes opened, lust dazed and hungry. Damn. He wanted to take a picture.
“Hi, to you too,” he said. Allison’s bare shoulders gleamed, and it was all he could do not to pull her into her office and explore every ivory inch of them. Derrick stepped back, dropped the box of cannoli on the counter and presented her with the flowers. “These are for you.”
“They’re lovely, Derrick, but you shouldn’t have.” She was already heading into the kitchen, looking for water, he assumed. He followed her through the doors. The kitchen was humid and smelled like tomato gravy and pasta boiling. Marley was busy packaging up paper products, to go with the orders for the evening.
“Hey Marley,” he said. Marley looked up at him, her usually friendly face, serious. She frowned and flicked a glance at Allison’s back. The little negative shake of Marley’s head confused him, but he stayed quiet. Marley didn’t approve of something, but whether she thought he
was being too forward or not, wasn’t clear. Then he remembered her comment from the night he drove her home. She thought Allison would eat him alive. Boss lady Allison might do just that, but this woman standing on the toes of her black boots, trying to reach a vase on the top shelf—this woman, this was the one he was after tonight. The fact that she came cocooned inside a fierce warrior was what had kept all the lesser men before him away.
Why did the two halves of her make Allison perfect for him? He didn’t think he could explain it to himself, never mind Marley. He settled for winking at his old friend and laughed when she tossed up her hands and flounced off, her back to him and all her Latina disapproval practically shimmering around her.
He turned his attention to Allison and came up behind her, letting himself lean into her back, taking down the vase for her. They brought it down together, and this time, he allowed himself to kiss her bare shoulder. From behind him, he heard the refrigerator door slam, and he grinned into Allie’s neck. The water ran, the vase filled and the moment passed. He stepped back as the ends of the blooms were dispatched, the flowers arranged. Bossy lady was coming back.
“These are so beautiful!” She turned to Marley. “Marley, we’re going now. I’ll be back in a couple hours.”
He cleared his throat and scowled at Marley from behind Allison’s back.
“OK, muchacha,” Marley said.
“Marley?” he asked.
“Oh fine!” Marley looked at Allison, thrusting her head forward and to the side in a half-assed capitulation. “I’ll close up if you want.”
“Really? Will you be OK? I didn’t plan on that …” The idea sent Allison into a flurry of planning. He could practically see it all spinning around in her head. Allison was good and gone now. Boss lady was all that was left. He grabbed his bossy girl’s hand and pulled her toward the door. “Bring those flowers out here. It’s too warm in there.”
“Wait! I need to go over a couple of things if she’s going to close.”
“Marley, leave the keys at the bar, OK?” He wasn’t sure if bossy girl was going to follow him but her hand stayed firmly in his, so he kept going. They were out of the kitchen. Grabbing the cannoli as he passed the counter, he kept walking, finally stopping after he opened the door to let her by. She turned to him as she passed, eyes as big as the moon. He bit his cheek to keep his game face on.
Chapter 11
The door was open, Derrick was standing with his back to it, holding it wide, his eyes gently challenging as he watched her. All Allison had to do was put the flowers on the counter and walk past him. Two simple actions. Set down the flowers. Walk through the door. To Allison, these two actions loomed larger than signing the mortgage for the business had. When she’d put her name, her credit and her dad’s money on the line, she’d been confident that with enough elbow grease, and sheer grit, she could win that challenge. Walking through this door and into Derrick’s world, on a date, required a different kind of confidence. Running the business was something she believed she could do, even if she were the only person left to work it. Dating Derrick required more, it meant that sometimes, like now, he might be in control. So as Allison walked empty-handed through her own front door, she couldn’t help but look up at Derrick, trying to tell from his face if he understood the partnership they’d just struck. The construction god looked back at her, his gaze soft and simmering with amusement as if he already knew he had it all under control. How was it Marley didn’t see that in him? How was it Marley thought Allie could do anything to move this man if he didn’t choose to allow it?
She passed Derrick, his hand finding its way to the small of her back as she moved by, perhaps a little lower than needed, since she felt the warmth of his hand on the curve of her butt. Then he was beside her, leaning over and speaking softly in her ear, “I want to make a meal out of this ass.”
Poof. Spell b-r-o-k-e-n.
“What’s that supposed to mean?” Was he saying her ass was big? Because that’s what she thought too, but damn, he didn’t get to say that.
“It means, your ass is spectacular.”
She eyed him up, keeping one hand firmly on the front door of Mastrelo’s, despite the cold biting into her bare shoulders. “You mean it’s my biggest feature.”
“That would be your mouth, and you know it. I like your ass.” He put his hand on the door handle and Allie watched in amazement as she simply let go, let him open it. She moved through the doorway and felt his breath on her bare shoulder as he leaned over her.
“So why don’t you work it?”
She was shocked by the words, who would ever think she was going to work her ass to lure in a man? She wasn’t anything like that. But the damage was done, because her coosie was saying, oh yes, yes, she was exactly like that. By the way, her coosie liked working her ass in tight jeans. That shit felt good. So, Allison might have relaxed her lower back just a little as they made their way through the bar and she might have kept her thighs together just a bit more than her usual stomp of a walk. And maybe, just maybe, that was what caused the appreciative moan from behind her. She grinned.
As they approached the group gathered around the pair of tables at the back of the bar, the sly, warm hand returned to its too-low place, fingers spread wide. The hand slid lower, and her arousal burgeoned. She could hardly focus on what Derrick was saying as he introduced her.
Derrick had guided her to one end of the joined tables so that she could look down the length of the gathering and see all the faces. Between the variety of expressions on the faces of the gathered party and the hum of her way too turned on coos, the names were going to be a lost cause.
“Hi guys, this is Allison Walton.”
A woman with hair so dark, it might be black, smiled at her. Going by her age, that had to be Marie. The woman’s expression was warm and touched by curiosity as if Derrick had never mentioned Allison to her, and she supposed, he probably hadn’t. Apparently eating her out in the kitchen that afternoon had changed something. She felt her face flush with shame at the memory of Angelo pounding on the door and of how poorly she’d treated the man at her side, telling him to wipe his face, causing that look of angry hurt. She searched the group for Angelo and found him near the head of the table, a frown creasing his old brow, silver hair combed straight back, age spots on his high cheekbones. He didn’t look happy to see her.
Oh, my God. Did he hear me? Ambushed by the shock of the thought, she felt her body temperature climb, and she cursed her low-cut sweater. She just knew she was flushed all the way down her neck to where her collar met her chest. Derrick’s hand moved to the curve of her waist, and he pulled her in closer as if he knew she wanted a place to hide.
“Oh! Cookie! How’re you?” From behind her, Rose’s voice rang across the bar. Allie turned to see Rose, almost at her side. The woman’s arms were flung wide, and she just barreled in and swept Allison into a hug. “How is the business? And look at you! So lovely!” Rose turned Allison back to the table, and hustled her to a seat, flinging her hand out and practically dumping David out of his chair. “David, go ’round and sit by your mother. Make two seats together for them!” In the space of a moment, Allison was ensconced between Angelo and Derrick, and facing a smiling man with ash brown hair.
“Dad, this is Allison.” Derrick’s voice was tight. Under the table, the thigh Derrick leaned against hers was hard as stone. She risked a quick glance at Derrick’s face and was surprised to see the bland, blank look she remembered from the night he’d accused her of being out on a date while her dad burned the daylights out of a pot of who-knew-what. That carefully bland face masked feelings that were anything but, she realized.
“I heard you the first time,” his father stated without taking his eyes from Allison. “I’m Dr. Spencer Moss, Derrick’s father.”
Moss! Finally, she knew Derrick’s last name.
A smile found its way to her face, years of customer service gave a woman the perfectly accommodating expression for all t
ypes of people. She quirked her eyebrows in a way that many chose to see as extreme interest. “It’s a pleasure to meet you,” she said.
Rose hustled around to the other side of the table and took the chair across from her husband. “And you’ve met David, I think? The night you bought the place?”
David, now seated next to Marie, at the far end of the table, laughed. “She tried to sell me catering before she even had a speck of food in the joint. Glad to see you made it through the holiday rush in one piece.” David’s face was open and genuine, and Allison liked him immediately. He might be a doctor, but he was nothing like his father. She glanced over at Spencer Moss. The older man was beaming at David.
“My son is also a doctor,” Spencer announced proudly and now it was David’s turn to look away. Just a quick glance but it was enough. David looked Allison in the eye and said, “Just a GP.” And it hit Allison like a ton of bricks. She didn’t know what Derrick did for a living. She’d assumed he worked for Angelo, but he wasn’t always there. He dressed like a construction worker, though. She’d thought he did that too. How had she held both of those ideas in her mind? How could she be here, sitting next to a man, learning his last name and what he did for a living, for the first time? Was she really that self-absorbed? No, it wasn’t that exactly. They’d never actually sat down and talked. Instead, he’d inserted himself into her life. How had that happened? By helping her. The man helped. Her. She felt off-kilter. Sophia broke her train of thought, coming up behind Allison and giving her a warm hug, and then plopping into the chair on the other side of Derrick. Sophia leaned around Derrick to talk to Allison.
“Allison and I found something that belongs to you, Derry.” Sophia’s voice was teasing, and she reached across the table to snag a black olive and pop it into her mouth. Her dark brown eyes sparkled. She was so pretty, Allison could hardly look away.
Men must just fall all over each other for a chance to talk to her, Allison thought. She was ferociously glad Sophia was Derrick’s sister and not her competition.